The first time that a research breakthrough is made public and/or current issues are debated, it is often at a conference or other meeting in a specific subject. Papers presented at a conference are usually collated into conference proceedings as a published record of presentations.
Finding and obtaining conference papers and proceedings can often be a challenge, however the tools and services below can assist researchers to find these items. The QUT Library facilitates access to these resources both on and off campus.
- Conference specific databases
- Subject specific databases
- Finding and obtaining conference proceedings
- ePrints
- Finding upcoming conferences
- Getting help
Conference specific databases
Conference specific databases contain citations of papers and proceedings from various conferences and meetings. These databases are searchable by keyword. Please note that these databases do not contain the full text of the conference presentation. See Obtaining conference proceedings for instructions on how to get the complete document.
Boston Spa Conferences: This database contains records of over 335,000 published proceedings from 1787 to 2000 (It is no longer updated and it is not available off campus).
Conference Papers Index via the CSA Illumina platform: This database provides citations to papers and poster sessions presented at major scientific meetings around the world. Subject emphasis since 1995 has been in the life sciences, environmental sciences and the aquatic sciences, while older material also covers physics, engineering and materials science. Information is derived from final programs, abstracts booklets and published proceedings, as well as from questionnaire responses. Records include complete ordering information to obtain preprints, abstracts, proceedings and other publications derived from the conference, together with title and author information needed to track the specific papers.
PapersFirst (via FirstSearch): This database which is available only to QUT staff and postgraduate students contains citations to papers presented at worldwide meetings, conferences, expositions, workshops, congresses, and symposia from 1993 to the present. It includes over 580,000 papers received in publications by the British Library Document Supply Center. Access is only available to QUT postgraduate students and staff and requires a login and password - please contact the Library Help Desk or your Liaison Librarian.
ProceedingsFirst (via FirstSearch): This database which is available only to QUT staff and postgraduate students contains citations to the published proceedings of worldwide meetings, conferences, expositions, workshops, congresses, and symposia received at the British Library Document Supply Center from October 1993 to the present. In addition to including the papers presented, it provides an overview of the activities at these events. Access is only available to QUT postgraduate students and staff and requires a login and password - please contact the Library Help Desk or your Liaison Librarian.
British Library: The British Library holds a wealth of conference proceedings. It claims to be "the most comprehensive and easily accessible collection of conference publications in the world. It is internationally recognised that this material is important to collect; papers given at conferences fulfill a distinct function in the field of research and yet are often overlooked as a resource for those undertaking research because they are difficult to verify and locate."
Search the British Library's Integrated Catalogue. Once the references to the paper(s) or conference proceedings title(s) are identified, follow the instructions in 'Obtaining conference proceedings' to locate and obtain the document.
Subject specific databases
Often papers that are presented at conferences are published in journals and indexed and abstracted in subject-specific bibliographic databases. QUT staff and students can access these resources from the databases section of the library website.
Some specific databases such as ACM Digital Library, APA Fulltext - Australian Public Affairs (via Informit Search), ASCE Online Research Library, ENGINE- Australian Engineering Database (via Informit Search), IEEE Xplore, Biological Abstracts, ERIC, Compendex, Inspec, PsycINFO, and SciFinder Scholar include a substantial number of conference proceedings and/or papers.
All databases will provide you with a citation and often an abstract, however most will not provide you with the fulltext of the paper. In this case, see the section below for instructions on how to get the complete document.
Obtaining conference proceedings
Once you have found a citation for a conference paper or proceedings, the next step is to locate and obtain a copy of the relevant document. The simplest way to locate conference proceedings is to check the QUT Library catalogue to see if the library holds the item. To do this, perform a KEYWORD search using words from the conference name or title and add the word "congresses"
Example:
Let's say you wanted a conference paper in the Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy : 8-13 August 2004, Gold Coast, Australia. To see if QUT Library had access to these proceedings, do a KEYWORD search of the QUT Library Catalogue using the words 'raman' and 'congresses'. The results list will show that QUT Library does indeed have access to the conference proceedings in print. At QUT Library, conference proceedings kept in the general collection can be borrowed as a standard loan. Those which are kept in the Periodicals Collection cannot be borrowed.
If the conference paper is in a journal issue, try a TITLE search for the journal title in the QUT Library catalogue. Many of the library's journal subscriptions are now available online and will be listed in the catalogue as an '[electronic resource]'. If the journal is a print subscription held at another campus, submit an Intercampus copy request and the article will be delivered to your home campus for collection at the Library Help Desk Desk.
If the paper or proceedings are not accessible via QUT Library, staff and students can request them via QUT Library's Document Delivery Service.
ePrints
ePrints are copies of academic publications (generally journal articles and conference papers), that have been "self-archived" by the authors. ePrints are made available, free of charge, via special online eprint repositories. Some ePrint repositories are discipline-based (eg CogPrints contains cognitive science eprints) others are institutional (eg QUT ePrints or ePrints@UQ). The records in these ePrint repositories are indexed by Google so, if you enter the title of the conference paper into Google (as a phrase), it will locate the self-archived ePrint copy if one exists. Alternatively, you can use OAIster, to search across hundreds of ePrint repositories with one search.
At QUT, non-refereed research literature, conference contributions, chapters in proceedings are included in the University's digital repository.
Finding upcoming conferences
Conferences are an important way to share information and to meet other people in your subject area. There are a number of online directories to help you find upcoming conferences.
| Academic Conferences Worldwide - Conference Alerts | Links to upcoming conferences worldwide. It is constantly updated and is arranged by subject and by country. |
| AllConferences.com | AllConferences.com is a directory focusing on conferences, conventions, trade shows, exhibits, workshops, events and business meetings. |
| Papers Invited | PapersINVITED claims to present an exhaustive list of Calls for Papers issued by professional bodies, journal editors and other conference organizers in all disciplines. |
| HERO Conference Diary | From the Higher Education and Research in the United Kingdom website. Conferences are listed by subject category. |
| Scirus Search Engine | Scirus is a search engine for scientific information. Search for specific conferences or organisation titles by placing quotation marks on each end of the phrase. The same approach can be used with any search engine, such as Google. |